cooking class: taste of Andalusia

This is proving to be a mighty busy week. We kicked it off (after a full Monday back at work) with a cooking class featuring dishes from the Andalusia region of Spain. Brian Tolbert of the Dulce Plate did the cooking, we did lots of chopping and running around with plates.

To keep the guests from expiring from hunger right off the bat, Brian started with some fairly simple mussels cooked in a vegetable and wine broth. They were good, of course (fresh mussels, duh), but I would have liked a slightly heavier broth and a lot of bread to sop it up. Fortunately, there was more food coming…

The second course was quite solid: piquillo peppers stuffed with a mixture of yellowfin tuna and bechamel sauce, then dredged in egg and seasoned flour and fried in olive oil. Wowzers, these were good. I could eat a couple of these for a meal.

cooking class: sweet and savory bites

A number of years ago, J worked for a summer as a delivery driver for a wonderful local bakery called La Vie En Rose. It meant that he had to leave for work at 1 am, which wasn’t so great; on the other hand, we ate a lot of really great bread that summer. The owner of the bakery occasionally gives cooking classes at Gretchens, and we finally got around to volunteering for one of these, which featured both sweet and savory bites and appetizers.

The philosophy of the class seemed to be, “life is short, eat dessert first.” So the first course included a puff pastry “daisy” filled with lemon cream, plus a fried wonton full of chocolate and banana. I particularly liked the daisy, because I am a sucker for lemon curd in most circumstances.

cooking class: tapas & paella

Another cooking class at Gretchens, this time focusing on one dish: paella! Knut Christiansen of Paellaworks catering brought his big pan and lots of good stuff to put in it, and Randy Finley of Mount Baker Vineyards brought wine to go along with it all. Paella is something Knut does especially well, even when he’s making it up as he goes along, so it was great fun to watch it all come together. And even more fun to eat it at the end.

Paella takes a while to cook, of course, so to keep people occupied and happy Knut put together some tapas to pass out. One was a leaf of Swiss chard wrapped around a tasty filling of cheese and sausage, paired with a salad of shredded asparagus, olives, chard stems and a tangy tangerine and cinnamon dressing. Everyone ate those immediately, so after that he toasted some crostini in the paella pan, I rubbed it with raw garlic and he swiped a bit of tomato sauce across it. Simple but good. We ate the tapas with two white wines, a blend called Rosetta Blanc and a Viognier (Mount Baker makes a really nice vio).

cooking class: polenta three ways

Last week we helped out at a great cooking class: Casey Schanen from Nell Thorn restaurant did the cooking and Renee Stark of Noble Wines brought the wine. The theme was polenta in different preparations, which sounds like it would be repetitive, but in fact it was fabulous. Not a surprise, of course - Casey’s cooking is always fabulous.

We didn’t start out with polenta immediately. Casey likes to bring an assortment of nibbles with him, so we assembled a bunch of plates for the guests with marinated olives, cheesy wafers, Nell Thorn sourdough bread and butter. I think putting out the nibbles is a great idea, it keeps the guests from getting antsy while the first course is being demonstrated (the classes start at 6:30 and sometimes no food gets served until 7:30).

Cooking class: French Canadian Christmas

Why do we do this to ourselves? We go straight from work, spend two hours chopping, two hours plating and serving, another hour cleaning up, and constant dishwashing throughout. Then we go home and collapse on the couch for an hour because we’re too wound up to sleep, but we still have to get up at 5 the next morning. Hmmm….

 Because we get to help cook things like this?

cooking class: shellfish and wine

Last Thursday at Gretchens we volunteered for a class focusing on shellfish paired with wine. The food was prepared by Knut Christiansen, the wine was provided by Randy Finley, owner of Mount Baker Vineyards. We were there for five hours and I think I’ve eaten enough butter sauce to last me for a week or two, but it was a fun class.

Randy brought a good assortment of wines. We had the choice to begin with a sip of viognier or reserve merlot - both were excellent. Then he poured a rosé which was interestingly substantial, with almost an oaky quality. It went with the first shellfish course, which was:

Cooking class: autumnal food and wine pairing

 For this class we were paying guests, not volunteers! Watching the quantity of dishes being washed I decided I was OK with this. We just sat back, talked with our tablemates and admired the plates as they arrived. The chef was Jim Kowalski, chef-about-town and employee at the fabulous Breadfarm Bakery in Edison. Wine was chosen by Renee Stark of Noble Wines.

Cooking class: Northern Italian food & wine

A kitchen store near our house regularly offers cooking classes and wine tastings. We used to occasionally go to these as guests, as we could afford it, but then we discovered the possibility of volunteering in the store as class assistants. Now every couple of weeks or so during the class season we head down to the store after work and start chopping. The level of work required depends heavily on which chef or wine rep is leading the class, and how many people are signed up - classes range from 6 to 26 people. It’s work, but we get to taste the food and the wine, meet local chefs, and cook some things we don’t normally try at home. In return we chop, plate, wash dishes, serve, stuff peppers, debeard mussels, measure flour, and sweep up at the end of the night. It’s a little like getting restaurant experience without getting paid or yelled at.